I am looking for a ship that goes via Japan (preferably) to the west coast of America or Canada. I live in Australia and need to get to US without flying. Something more interesting than direct. Any suggestions will be helpful. Thanks.

Next April the Royal Caribbean ship Rhapsody Of The Seas repositions from Australia to British Columbia. It is done with two cruises. The first leaves from Sydney and ends at Honolulu. Then the ship departs from Honolulu for Vancouver. It is a long time though - 16 days for the first cruise and 10 for the second one.

But it is certainly interesting and you see a lot of places.

April 12, 2010, from Sydney. The ship arrives in Hawaii on April 27 and then turns around and leaves that same evening. (Yes, it seems a day is missing - International Date Line).

Well I guess I stand corrected then. But I assume the original poster was looking for something more "regular" than that. And I assumed they need to get BACK to Australia at some point and those repositioning cruises only happen twice a year....

Thanks for all your feedback. We are senior cits and have done much travelling but need to return to UK for a while next year. My husband can no longer fly for health reasons so we are looking at alternatives. Time not critical. I'd love to go via Mongolia or the Silk Route but he's not so keen. Sailing back through Panama would be preferable (I've done it the other way) and we'd love to do more travel in US, so other things are not a problem. The main problem is getting there and I think via Pacific would be the most sensible. I'm sure I've seen ships go via Japan in the past, but can't find anything at the moment. Friends of ours have just come back from Hawaii on the Rhapsody of the Seas and said they were bored as there were only four ports in 3 weeks. We prefer the smaller ships. I have been looking at freighter travel but haven't been able to find anything in the Pacific. Will check the ones listed, thanks.